I had to laugh – because that sounds so familiar. As Bill Clinton would have said, I feel your pain!
4 Likes
2023 September 21
After further reflexion, it appears that the problem Linux is having in
recognising the existing Windows installation is that it is completely
unaware of the RAID0 array which is managed by the Intel RAID code in
the BIOS. It sees only the two SSDs that make up the array as separate
drives and doesn’t find a partition table on either one, as it is
apparent only when you access the pair as a striped RAID0 array.
What it looks like I’ll have to do is delete the RAID array and then do
a bare metal install of Windows 11 on the first SSD. I was hoping to
avoid this, since this means I’ll have to then re-install the Alienware
third party stuff which is pre-installed on the system. Then I can
install Linux on the second SSD and have its GRUB configured to allow
booting from either SSD.
Let's start by shrinking the Windows 11 partition on the RAID array
down so it will fit onto one of the 2 Tb drives. This should, I hope,
allow it to be saved as an image backup on an external hard drive and
then restored onto the first 2 Tb drive after the RAID array is broken
up. According to the documentation for image backups, you can only
restore to a drive of the same or larger size. This is what requires
the shrink before we save the mirror image.
To shrink the Windows 11 partition, launch the Start/Disk Management
application. Right click the "OS (C:)" partition in the Disk 0 status
bar and select "Shrink Volume...". This follows instructions in:
https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/how-to-create-a-dual-boot-setup-on-windows-11
the "Shrink partition for new setup".
The Shrink pop-up reports:
Total size before shrink in MB: 3882430
Size of available shrink space in MB: 3690324
Total size after shrink in MB: 192106
Entered:
Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB: 2700000
Yielding:
Total size after shrink in MB: 1182430
which should fit comfortably on one 2 Tb drive with the other
partitions.
Clicked Shrink. This was almost instantaneous, and now shows:
OS (C:) 1154.72 GB NTFS
2636.72 GB Unallocated
Plugged in a 3 Tb backup drive last used in December 2021 to a USB port
and powered up. Now we need to re-format as NTFS to accept the backup.
Instructions are from:
https://www.howtogeek.com/765626/how-to-format-a-hard-drive-or-ssd-on-windows-11/
Open File Explorer from the taskbar. Click "This PC". And...the drive
does not appear, showing only OS (C:). Unplugged and re-plugged USB
cable, and the system chimes when you do this, but it still doesn't
appear.
However, the external drive shows up in the Disk Management window as
"Disk 1", 2794.49 GB Healthy (Primary Partition).
In the Disk Management window, deleted the partition on Disk 1. Now
it shows two partitions:
2048.0 GB Unallocated
746.49 GB Unallocated
Now, I right click on the left Unallocated box and select "New Simple
Volume...", summoning a "Wizard" (or course). Select maximum size
and choose not to assign a drive letter. Format as:
File system: NTFS
Allocation unit size: Default
Volume label: Mirror 2023-09-21
Quick format: Unchecked
Click Finish and it starts beavering away.
The rate the formatting was proceeding indicated it would take "almost
forever". I cancelled it. Then I discovered that if I right clicked
on the Disk 1 box at the left, I had the option to "Convert to GPT
Disk". This is the fancy new partitioning system all the cool kids are
using now, and selecting that eliminated the two spaces on the disc
(presumably because the legacy MBR scheme cannot address a space larger
than 2 TB, and now shows a single unallocated space of 2794.47 GB.
I clicked that space and started a new format of it, as above, but
this time with quick format enabled. This completed in a few seconds.
The drive does not show up in This PC, even after unplugging it and
plugging it back in.
Now we proceed to making a mirror backup. Go to Control Panel/System
and Security/Backup and Restore (Windows 7). In the left panel,
click "Create a system image". It says "Looking for backup drives"
and after around 30 seconds, gives up having found nothing. It
shows nothing under "On a hard disk".
Go back to the Disk Management window, right click the partition on the
Mirror 2023-09-21 drive, and choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths".
I assigned it drive letter G.
Now is shows up in This PC as G:. And...it shows up in the "Create
a system image" panel when I "". Select it and press Next.
Next, we get "Confirm your backup settings", indicating it will use
162 GB of space on drive G and back up:
EFI System Partition
OS (C:) (System)
WINRETOOLS (System)
Click "Start backup".
It won't create a "System repair disc" on a USB stick of external drive.
It will only write a DVD, and when you try to give it a CD-R, it
rejects it saying 700 Mb isn't enough space. I don't have a DVD-R,
so I'm going to live dangerously and skip this step.
I don't see any way to eject the external USB hard drive as you'd do
with a USB stick, so I set it Offline in "Disk Management" before
unplugging it and powering it down. I hope I don't regret that
later.
To get to RAID configuration, monkey-hammer on F12 during restart, and
when you get to fancy pre-boot screen, select "Device Configuration".
This goes to a text mode screen like the old F2 days. Select "Intel(R)
Rapid Storage Technology" (RST) and press Return. This shows your RAID
volumes. Select the volume and press Return.
This shows you information about the array. At this point, you have
under Volume Actions, Delete. Click it. A Delete screen appears
which warns us all data will be lost. Select Yes.
Now we go back to the RST screen, which shows two "Non-RAID Physical
Disks":
PCIe 0.0
PCIe 1.0
You can highlight these to show details. Each shows 1.8 Tb available.
After separating the RAID array into its component discs, the system
was non-bootable. At this point, you're supposed to be able to
recover from the BIOS ROM, booting over HTTP into a restore program.
Despite successfully connecting to WiFi, this predictably fails with
"Cannot find IP address". So, at this point, we have no Windows
UEFI boot source to restore the Windows system far enough to reload
the mirror backup we made.
But I do have the UEFI Xubuntu Linux USB stick. I plug it in and now
I can boot into its installer. Choosing the second SSD (PCIe 1.0),
I partition it into an EFI partition and an EXT4 single-partition
files space and do a full install of Xubuntu onto the second SSD,
placing the boot loader on the first SSD. After the install process,
the system boots directly into Xubuntu from the second SSD.
Started download of Windows 11 all versions ISO from:
https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11
This is a 5.4 Gb download, and takes a while.
Created a bootable Windows 11 install USB stick according to:
https://www.fosslinux.com/109720/creating-a-bootable-windows-10-11-usb-on-linux.htm
Installed WoeUSB via the PPA and apt install pathway.
Removed Windows installation USB stick and verified Xubuntu reboots on
a full restart.
Inserted Windows installation USB stick. It opened as an ISO in
Linux.
Rebooted and did the F12 Skinner rat trick. Now it came up and showed
me the Windows USB stick as a boot option. Clicked it, and here we
are in the Windows installation start page!
Selected English (United States) as language, locale, and keyboard.
Accepted licence.
Chose Custom Install
Changed BIOS settings to disable RAID on and set SATA/NVMe Operation to
Disabled.
In order for Windows to find the drives after disabling RAID, you have
to set SATA/NVMe operation to AVHCI/NVMe. Disabled hides the drives.
Rebuilt Windows USB stick in NTFS mode. This apparently allows it to
show up in the boot menu after disabling RAID. I have no idea why this
is.
Selected to install Windows 11 on Drive 1, Unallocated Space, 1907.7 GB.
After installing Windows 11 on the drive, it reboots and runs normally.
However, we have no WiFi, no sound drivers, no nothing. This is a
purely generic install. So, I think, great! Now all we have to do
is restore the mirror backup made at the start of this very long day
and we're back in business.
After another couple of hours of trying this and trying that and trying
the other thing, it is now evident the mirror backup is a cruel joke.
Every time you try to restore it, it fails within seconds saying there
is no suitable disc on which to install it. This, notwithstanding there
is a disc with 2 Tb of available space and nothing else on it just
waiting to receive the backup. The "Details" message is a half page
of Microsoft bullshit suggesting everything as a possible cause
including but not limited to what you had for dinner, but offering no
concrete steps to remedy the problem.
So, we try A, B, and C, then A and B, then A and C, then B and C,
and...give up. As I said, cruel joke. I wonder how many people
have these mirror backups sitting on their shelves as the ultimate
rescue from a ransomware attack and haven't ever tried restoring
them to see if they actually work. Hey, they think, it's Microsoft:
how bad can it be?
Next course correction: try the Dell/Alienware Operating System Recovery
Image:
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000123667/how-to-download-and-use-the-dell-os-recovery-image-in-microsoft-windows
Now, this only works if you first have a running Windows 11, so you need
to get Windows 11 up somehow before starting, unless you have it also on
another machine (and may God have mercy on your soul). Well, we have
Windows 11 staggering, if not running, so I downloaded it and, it having
detected my service tag and deduced my configuration, gave it the 128
Gb USB stick I used for the Windows recovery USB (I don't have these
things coming out of my ears, so I have to re-use), and it spent around
30 minutes downloading stuff and putting it on the USB stick, at which
point it told me to reboot. I did so, and it came up in an Alienware
branded restore program booted from the USB stick.
The first step is to scan the hardware for problems, which takes around
15 minutes, half of which is a RAM test. Fair enough, we have 64 GB of
RAM to test. The memory test really gets the fan going. This is the
first time I've appreciated Alienware as space heater. Hardware scan
completed with no errors.
Proceeded to Reset, which does a full factory reset of the operating
system. This requires an Internet connection and is estimated to run
between 40 and 45 minutes. Install will be of Build 10.0.22621.1848.
Started at 22:20 UTC. Chose not to transfer settings and data, as we
are loading onto a virgin Windows 11 install.
Selected first SSD, containing virgin Windows 11 install, as destination.
Started reset.
The construction of the USB drive finished at 23:41 UTC. It now says to
remove the USB drive and restart the computer. Here we go.
Failed, saying "A Required device isn't connected or can't be accessed.
(Error code 0xc000000e). While I was typing this, the machine powered
down (the ultimate peek-a-boo message).
The system was totally dead as long as I rebooted using the default
path after the re-install, which put Windows Boot Manager first. By
trial and error, I discovered I could boot into Xubuntu on the second
SSD by explicitly specifying it after an F12 jump into the BIOS, and
then I tried explicitly specifying the first SSD there and *cazart*,
I got into the Alienware Windows 11 re-install, which is now
reconfiguring itself.
Well, that worked, and now we're at the Alienware connect to WiFi.
And, it worked!
Downloading updates. It says "Sit back and relax while the magic
happens." I shudder in terror.
It's rebooting again.
Licence agreement: accepted.
Well, it kind of works. I shall test it further to-morrow. Fourteen
hours is enough for one day.
4 Likes
Giggle…
/me runs away
3 Likes
2023 September 22
Did a complete update of packages on the Linux side:
sudo su
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
then the little dance we do to pick up package which have been "kept
back" for whatever reason.
1. apt list --upgradable
2. apt-get install
3. apt list --upgradable
4. If packages remain, go to 2.
5. apt-get autoclean
6. apt-get update
7. apt-get dist-upgrade
Installed:
apt-get install geany
The current boot configuration is to boot into Xubuntu by default
(item "ubuntu" is first in the boot menu in the BIOS. To boot into
Windows 11, restart with F12 down, then click "Windows Boot Manager"
in the panel at the left of the BIOS configuration screen.
After booting into Windows, Windows update popped up and began
downloading and installing of a page and a half up updates to
Microsoft and Dell packages.
On the Settings/Windows Update page there is a button at the upper
right which variously says "Download and install all" or "Install
all". It appears to do nothing. You have to click on the "Download"
or "Install" links for the individual items in the list to get
anything going. These have progress indicators that are useless they
stick at 0% or some small number for a long time and then jump all
the way to "Completed".
Well, it appears to have forgotten its Product Key to enable Windows
Pro. Re-entered it from Settings/System/Activation. It hangs in
Preparing for Upgrade, with an application modal dialog box blocking
access to Settings and no way to cancel.
Rebooted. Hung for a long time in "Restarting", then booted into
Linux before I could catch it with F12. Rebooted again.
This time, as soon as it came up in Windows, I closed the Settings/
Windows Update and Dell Recovery windows, then launched Settings/System/
Activation and tried the Product Key upgrade to Pro again. This time
it didn't hang and quickly got to 10% in Preparing for upgrade,
then got stuck there for a while, ran up to 80%, and proceeded like
molasses from there.
It finally completed, the rebooted--into Linux. Manually rebooted
back into Windows. Now it came up in "Adding features". Rebooted.
This time I caught it with F12 and sent it back to Windows. Now it
came up with a Pro-looking screen background. Settings/Activation
says it's Pro.
To run the Windows command prompt as Administrator, right click the
Start menu, then select "Terminal (Admin)". There are other ways to
get there, but this is the easiest.
According to multiple documents, including:
https://www.top-password.com/blog/enable-classic-boot-menu-in-windows-11/
the way you enable the multi-boot menu is to run the command:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes
from the terminal in Administrator mode. This doesn't work. When you
try it, you get "The set command specified is not valid".
Windows Update, having been stuck for around an hour at 7% downloading
the "Cumulative Update for Windows 11", jumped to 70%, then staggered its
way to 100% over the next five minutes. After some unknown amount of
time (I was otherwise occupied), it finally changed status to "Pending
restart" and displayed a "Restart now" button. Pushed it. It took
a long time to get to 19%, whereupon it rebooted. Started counting
over from 0% after boot. Got to 27% and rebooted again. Picked up at
30% and ran to 100%, finally came up in login screen.
Launched Windows Update again. This time it reports three failed
updates, all with "Download error":
Dolby - SoftwareComponent
Dolby - AudioProcessingObject
intelliGo - Extension
Tried to retry individually: buttons did nothing. Tried Retry All and
it cleared these and showed two new Microsoft updates, one of which it
began to install. One of them wants a reboot. Here we go again.
When reboot completed, Windows Update says "You're up to date". Well,
that only took five hours.
Idiot Steam starts automatically whenever you boot into Windows 11,
then bashes you with a splash screen. To disable:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/6089-6768-F7FB-C46F
launch Steam, select Steam/Settings/Interface and uncheck "Run Steam
when my computer starts". While I was there, enabled 24 hour clock.
In order to add a Windows 11 boot item to the Linux Grub menu, proceed
as explained by:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1425637/how-can-i-add-windows-11-to-grub-menu
On Linux, run:
os-prober
which will search all discs and partitions and report any EFI boot
operating systems present. For Windows 11, it might report something
like:
/dev/nvme0n1p1@/efi/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi:Windows Boot Manager:Windows:efi
Now, find all of the discs and partitions on the system with:
fdisk -l
Your Windows 11 EFI partition will show up like:
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 1026047 1024000 500M EFI System
Find the UUID of the EFI partition just located:
blkid /dev/nvme0n1p1
/dev/nvme0n1p1: LABEL="ESP" UUID="723C-D7AF" BLOCK_SIZE="512"
TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="062e996e-7119-4136-9c3b-1ea33edf31a5"
Now edit /etc/grub.d/40_custom. This is a pre-existing file intended
for locally-added Grub declarations. Add the declaration for "Windows
11":
menuentry 'Windows 11' {
search --fs-uuid --no-floppy --set=root 723C-D7AF
chainloader (${root})/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}
Rebuild Grub to add the entry:
update-grub
You should now see the entry in the generated /boot/grub/grub.cfg file.
To make Grub menu display on Linux and not go directly to boot, edit
/etc/default/grub and set:
#GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=30
This gives you 30 seconds to choose an alternative before it boots into
GRUB_DEFAULT. After editing the file, you must run:
update-grub
before rebooting.
Now, with all of that, we have achieved dual-boot into Windows 11 and
Xubuntu, both via EFI boot. Here's how it works. The BIOS is
configured to boot from SSD #1 as the highest priority item. This is
the Linux installation, and has an EFI partition containing the Grub
boot loader. The Grub configuration has been modified to add a
target, "Windows 11", with its EFI partition on SSD #1, specified via
the UUID determined above.
When you boot the machine, the BIOS loads the Linux Grub, which shows
the boot options menu. From there you can proceed directly into Linux
(the default after 30 seconds), or select Windows 11, in which case it
invokes chainloader to load the Windows Boot Manager from the EFI
partition on SSD #0, which proceeds to load Windows 11. This is all
insanely complicated and obscure compared to the old style using an
MBR boot loader that simply loads from different partitions, but, after
all the wasted time and suffering, does actually work.
Somewhere in this process, the Alienware restore handler says it
finished applying updates to all of their add-on software, At least
it isn't popping up the restore progress window on every reboot.
Installed:
apt-get install net-tools
in order to get ifconfig.
Installed:
apt-get install openssh-server
to enable SSH logins.
Windows was getting the time wrong by one hour until I turned Daylight
Saving Time adjustment off and on again in Settings/Time & language/
Date & time.
Began re-installation of software installed before the destruction of
the RAID0 array and factory re-set of the Alienware Windows 11
installation.
Installed the base Cygwin installation from:
https://www.cygwin.com/install.html
I installed it in the default of:
C:\cygwin64
not knowing the horrors which may eventuate should I choose another
location. Chose to download from mirror at:
https://cygwin.mirror.uk.sargasso.net
Selected Default packages to install. Allowed it to add icon to
desktop and start menu.
Installed Phoenix Firestorm viewer for Second Life. After some fiddling
with settings, it seems to be working, including voice input and
output. There was a scary pop-up about enabling voice access through
the firewall required to use voice. I enabled it for private and
public networks and it seems to be working OK.
Downloaded Alienware Command Center Application 5.4.35.0, A00 from:
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=1nn4h
This is the Alienware software that controls "special effects" such as
keyboard backlights, etc. This was pre-installed on the system but blown
away by the factory reinstall. You have to reboot after the installation
is complete.
Over to the Linux side now.
Changed the uucp/10 group to wheel/10 in /etc/group and /etc/gshadow.
Created the new kelvin user with:
adduser --home /home/kelvin --shell /bin/bash --uid 3099 --gid 10 kelvin
with the conventional password. Edited /etc/passwd to add additional
information.
I can now log into Roswell from Ragnar with a password.
Transferred ~/bin and ~/.ssh from Ragnar to Roswell. I can now log in
from Ragnar without a password.
Trasferred ~/.bash_profile from Ragnar. Logged out and back in and
confirmed the utilities in ~/bin are now on the PATH.
Installed our magical "super" utility in /bin. I just copied the
binary from Ragnar. I'll get around to transferring the source
in ~/linuxtools in the fullness of time, but it's just too convenient
to do without in the interim.
Added kelvin to the "sudo" group. This provides a potentially
lifesaving backup if we can't obtain privilege with "super".
Set the conventional password on "root". This, again, provides another
form of rescue in case of lockout.
Transferred the /root/.ssh directory from Ragnar to Roswell. We can
now log in as root from Ragnar to Roswell and vice versa. This will
be required for making remote backups.
Disabled the trackpad permanently in the Settings/Mouse and Touchpad
item.
Set the Settings/Window Manager/Focus to "Focus follows mouse".
Disabled that infuriating snap/resize when you're moving a window
and it touches the top of the screen with:
Settings Manager / Window Manager Tweaks / Accessibility /
Automatically tile windows when moving toward the screen edge
Disabled the Settings/Screensaver/Lock Screen for account kelvin.
Installed the Chromium browser with:
snap install chromium
Ran a "snap refresh" which updated Firefox.
Using Chromium, downloaded the current google_chrome_stable_current_amd64.deb
package for Google Chrome. Installed with:
super
dpkg -i google_chrome_stable_current_amd64.deb
Disable touchpad is by-account. Had to disable it on the kelvin account
as well as installation.
Set Fourmilab as home page in both Chrome and Chromium.
At this point, the system is basically working on both the Windows 11
and Xubuntu sides. There is a great deal to install and configure, but
much of this can be done on an on-demand basis. I will feel a lot more
warm inside once I have a backup of both sides of the machine. I will
make a standard Fourmilab mirror backup of the Linux partition in the
near future. I need to research options for backing up the Windows
side, since Bacula backup is not available as I'm offsite and do not
have access to the Fourmilab backup server.
2 Likes
Tip: If you set your network connections in modern Windows to “metered”, it cuts a bunch of telemetry and avoids downloading large updates until you approve them. Highly recommended.
(You still have to turn off all the telemetry options that are exposed to users.)
4 Likes
2023 September 23
Disabled screensaver (blanking) for the kelvin account. We'll rely on
the Power Management settings to handle this.
Reformatted the 3 Tb drive I used for the doomed Windows 11 mirror
backup for use as a mirror backup of both SSDs.
super
umount /dev/sda2
fdisk /dev/sda
p # Shows NTFS formatting
o # New DOS partition table
n # New partition
p # Primary
1 # Partition 1
# Start
# End
w # Write to drive
This creates a Linux filesystem filling the entire drive. Unplug and
plug back in.
mkfs -t ext4 -L Roswell_Backup /dev/sda1
fsck -f /dev/sda1
Unplug and plug and it mounts successfully.
Downloaded and installed Balena Etcher .deb package from:
https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/releases
This is a utility to write ISO images to USB drives.
The dpkg -i balena-etcher_1.18.11_amd64.deb installation left unresolved
dependencies. To fix these, I ran:
apt-get install -f
which installed the dependencies and then completed configuration of
Balena Etcher. Etcher may be found in the Accessories section of the
applications menu.
Downloaded Rescuezilla from:
https://rescuezilla.com/
and flashed onto the Kingston 3 Gb USB drive I last used for the Xubuntu
install ISO.
Restarted and booted into Rescuezilla. Selected English. A big black
box appears, filling around 3/4 of the screen, and then nothing happens.
The system is totally dead, and even Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't reset it.
The keyboard is still showing the boot colour pattern. Had to power
cycle machine. This happened two times.
So much for that.
Moving right along, let's try Redo Rescue:
http://redorescue.com/
When I try booting from its USB stick, a get a blue screen with
"Security failure" and a peekaboo message that disappears before I can
read it. This happens despite trying every way I could imagine to
create the USB boot drive, wasting more than three hours on the process.
It may be that we have to disable Secure Boot. You do this by booting
with F2 and scrolling down (note, mouse scroll wheel does not work here)
to Secure Boot, where you can turn off "Enable Secure Boot".
It still boots Xubuntu and Windows 11 with Enable Secure Boot turned
off.
And...with Secure Boot turned off, it boots into Redo Rescue from the
USB stick.
Guess what? After a few seconds, Redo Rescue hangs with the big black
box on the screen just like Rescuezilla. I'm beginning to get the
idea that somebody up there really doesn't like the idea of customers
making all-inclusive bare metal restore backups with free and open
source tools.
OK, two batters have come to the plate and both have ignominiously
struck out. Batter up! This time, trudging from the on deck circle
to the plate is an old timer, Clonezilla:
https://clonezilla.org/
a venerable free and open source program for disc cloning and bare
metal backup. In fact, Rescuezilla is a graphical user interface
bolted on to Clonezilla. But Clonezilla is known for its primitive
text-mode under interface but also broad compatibility, so maybe it
will be able to break this no-hitter. It also runs from a USB stick,
including its own Linux distribution to back up with discs completely
idle. I downloaded and made a USB stick with Rufus on Windows and
booted it. It came up OK, so I decided to see if it was able to
boot with Secure Boot turned on. I went back to the BIOS and enabled
it and, sure enough, Clonezilla booted just fine. I feel so secure now.
Now I plugged in the 3 Tb USB drive we formatted at the start of
this long day and started an image backup of all of the partitions
on which Windows 11 is installed, specifying verification after
the backup. This ran to completion with no problems, creating a
directory on the external drive called Windows_2023-19-23-18.img
containing the image files and metadata that Clonezilla uses to
restore the partitioning, boot loader, etc. on a bare metal restore.
The partition dumps mirror only occupied space (it understands most
file system structures) and the data it dumps are compressed with gzip.
The total dump of the Windows drive is 39 Gb.
I then mirrored the partitions on the Linux drive. This also completed
successfully, creating a directory called Linux_2023-09-23-19.img which
is 16 Gb.
As Clonezilla does not do incremental backups, every dump is a full
mirror, but at present we have plenty of space on the backup drive
for lots of dumps until we can get a smarter backup solution running.
The advantage of the mirror is that it permits complete restoration
in case of disaster, while most "smart backup" tools require extensive
preliminary work bringing up the system before restoring the backup.
Transferred the Wallpaper archive to both the Linux and Windows side
and set up wallpaper to make it obvious which we're running.
At the end of a very long day, we now have mirror backups of both
operating system installations. This should have taken about an hour
to accomplish. It took around ten. The Clonezilla boot is installed
on the Kingston 32 Gb drive. I will reserve it for that until we sort
out things further.
When you search for "Google Chrome" in the pre-installed Microsoft Edge
browser, it puts up a big panel at the top of the results saying
"There's no need to download a new web browser." Then, when you ignore
it and click the Download Google Chrome result, it puts a pop-up on top
of the Google Chrome page saying:
Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome
with the added trust of Microsoft.
and a button saying "Browse securely now" that takes you to a puff page
about the advantages of Edge. "Added trust of Microsoft, eh?" Sounds
like some anti-trust action is in order here.
Then, when you download the Chrome installer, another big banner appears
at the top of the page with the same "added trust" message as the pop-up.
This one has nothing to clearly distinguish it from the content which
is provided by Google on the page.
Oh my God! After downloading the Chrome installer, I looked for it in
the Download folder and it was nowhere to be found. I displayed the
Downloads panel in Edge, and it shows ChromeSetup.exe with a line
drawn through it and a message below, "Removed". Let's try downloading
it again.
This time I clicked on the download before it disappeared, and a panel
appeared at the right of the Edge screen with a multiple choice question
asking why I wanted to install another browser. This is just ludicrous.
This intrusion has a heading "We love having you!" "Detestation of
everything Microsoft" is not among the choices.
Finally, Google Chrome is installed and I can throw Microsoft off the
Edge.
Somehow, Windows spontaneously switched to a "Light" theme in which
window bars, etc. are a sickly salmon pink. I switched Settings/
Personalization/Colors/Choose your mode to "Dark" to get rid of it.
I don't particularly like dark mode, but that pink makes me bilious.
When I launched the Alienware Command Center, it said additional
components were required. I gave it permission to download, and it
proceeded to do so. I gave it permission to install. Naturally,
the "Alienware OC Controls Application" installer popped up *under*
all other open windows. When I found it, I clicked Install. This
popped up yet another Install dialogue, which I clicked. Finally, it
said OC controls installed.
2 Likes
I have had excellent results handling multiple bootable images on a single USB stick with Ventoy. You might find it helpful, too.
3 Likes
2023 September 24
Downloaded Basemark GPU benchmark from:
https://www.basemark.com/benchmarks/basemark-gpu/
and installed in ~/linuxtools/basemarkgpu-1.2.3. You run it with:
./basemarkgpu
Dies with:
libva error: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so init failed
So much for that.
Installed:
apt-get install vainfo
Reports:
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_14
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.14 (libva 2.12.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Intel iHD driver for Intel(R) Gen Graphics - 22.3.1 ()
To mount the Windows 11 C: drive under Linux, proceed as follows.
Use:
lsblk
to list installed block devices. Find the drive with all of the
(6 in my case) Windows partitions, and identify the big one which
will be the NTFS C: drive, here:
nvme1n1 259:1 0 1.9T 0 disk
├─nvme1n1p1 259:4 0 500M 0 part
├─nvme1n1p2 259:5 0 128M 0 part
├─nvme1n1p3 259:6 0 1.8T 0 part
├─nvme1n1p4 259:7 0 1.4G 0 part
├─nvme1n1p5 259:8 0 15G 0 part
└─nvme1n1p6 259:9 0 1.1G 0 part
in which nvme1n1p3 is the C: drive. This will have device file name
/dev/nvme1n1p3. Get its UUID with:
blkid /dev/nvme1n1p3
/dev/nvme1n1p3: LABEL="OS" BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="560E427A0E4252E3"
TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition"
PARTUUID="cbe2166a-6083-45e0-924a-920746ad2471"
Create a mount point for the Windows drive:
mkdir /win
Add an entry to /etc/fstab to mount it read-only.
# Windows 11 C: Drive
UUID=560E427A0E4252E3 /win ntfs ro 0 0
You can now mount it with:
mount /win
and it will be automatically mounted on subsequent boots.
Phil Turmel suggested Ventoy for managing booting from ISOs on USB
sticks, avoiding the need to re-format and dedicate a USB stick to
each ISO. That sounded excellent, so I gave it a try.
Downloaded Ventoy from:
https://www.ventoy.net/en/download.html
and unpacked into:
~/linuxtools/ventoy-1.0.95
Launched with:
super
cd ~/linuxtools/ventoy-1.0.95
./VentoyGUI.x86_64
Inserted new Lexar 8 Gb USB drive.
Performed install of version 1.0.95--successful.
After the installation, the drive is formatted with:
sda 8:0 1 7.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 1 7.5G 0 part /media/kelvin/Ventoy
└─sda2 8:2 1 32M 0 part
The big /media/kelvin/Ventoy partition is formatted as exfat. This
is where you copy the .iso files to be installed.
Downloaded Memtest86+ from:
https://memtest.org/
and unpacked mt86plus_6_20_64.iso, which I copied to the Ventoy
partition.
Booting Ventoy requires disabling Secure Boot. With it disabled,
Clonezilla boots correctly, but Memtest86+ hangs in an apparent
CPU loop.
So far, the main problem with Ventoy is that it requires disabling
Secure Boot even if the ISO you're loading (such as Clonezilla)
supports it. Now, I recognise the Secure Boot is nothing but a
scam to require people who make operating systems which are an
alternative to the Microsoft Trust pay them a Microsoft Tax, but
at the the same time I prefer things that run on a stock system
without disabling stuff in the BIOS, so I'm torn. After struggling
to get Windows 11, Xubuntu, and Clonezilla all booting in secure mode,
I'm inclined to stay with that configuration for the time being.
Downloaded and installed Phoenix Firestorm for Second Life on the
Linux side and unpacked in ~/linuxtools. It will be accessed the
same way through symbolic links as we do on Hayek and Ragnar.
With Firestorm under Linux and the window sized to around 7/8 of the
full screen of 2560x1600, I get around 160 frames per second on
Fourmilab Island. This is sensitively dependent on window size: with a
window around 1/4 of the screen frame rate is 273 frames per second.
Installed:
apt-get install texlive-xetex
This is the version of TeX/LaTeX which supports UTF-8.
Installed:
apt-get install fonts-linuxlibertine
This is the Unicode font collection used by XeTeX.
Installed:
apt-get install texlive-pstricks
This is needed to include EPS in LaTeX documents with the
"graphicx" package.
Installed:
apt-get install traceroute
apt-get install nmap
apt-get install spell
apt-get install exif
snap install audacity
apt-get install nedit
apt-get install ibritish
apt-get install units
apt-get install meld
apt-get install cadaver
apt-get install xdaliclock
apt-get install npm # Installs most of the nodejs complex
2 Likes
Huh. Works with Secure Boot for me. 
Ah, I turn that on again afterwards.
2 Likes
Makes HAL seem compliant:
4 Likes
2023 September 25
Added an /etc/hosts entry for ragnar. This is semi-ephemeral since
Ragnar's IP is assigned via DHCP, but it's just too convenient not to
have while it lasts.
On the Windows side:
Got rid of the stupid "Windows spotlight" picture on the stupid Lock
screen via Settings/Personalization/Lock screen. Selected a custom
picture from Pictures/Wallpaper, changed Lock screen status to None,
and unchecked "Get fun facts, ... on your lock screen". An idiot
lock screen I can't turn off isn't where I go to look for "fun".
Installed PowerShell 7.3.7.0:
Launched existing PowerShell as Administrator:
PS C:\Windows\system32> winget search Microsoft.PowerShell
Name Id Version Source
---------------------------------------------------------------
PowerShell Microsoft.PowerShell 7.3.7.0 winget
PowerShell Preview Microsoft.PowerShell.Preview 7.4.0.5 winget
PS C:\Windows\system32> winget install --id Microsoft.Powershell --source winget
Found PowerShell [Microsoft.PowerShell] Version 7.3.7.0
This application is licensed to you by its owner.
Microsoft is not responsible for, nor does it grant any licenses to, third-party packages.
Downloading https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.3.7/PowerShell-7.3.7-win-x64.msi
Successfully verified installer hash
Starting package install...
Successfully installed
Pinned PowerShell 7 to the Taskbar. $PSVersionTable reports version
7.3.7 and claims we're running Microsoft Windows 10 0.22621. Apparently
it's so powerful it can even travel backwards in time.
The user home account Windows 11 created for me on install is the idiot
C:\Users\kelvi. Querying how to change this results in a bunch of
scary Microsoft bullshit that boils down to "Don't try it".
Verified that I can SSH log in to Ragnar from Cygwin by specifying IP
address and password. This will help transferring cut and paste stuff
for this log.
Changed screen power off settings in Settings/System/Power & battery to:
Plugged in turn off screen 15 minutes
Plugged in, put device to sleep 25 minutes
It then nagged me that having the two times different "results in higher
carbon emissions". Shut up, Greta.
Back on Linux.
Moved Roswell to main development desk. Disconnected auxiliary screen
(Philips 24 inch, 1920x1080 60 Hz) from DisplayPort adaptor on Ragnar
and connected directly to HDMI port on Roswell.
To enable automatic configuration of displays when an auxiliary display
is connected or disconnected:
Settings/Display/Advanced/Connecting Displays
Check "Configure new displays when connected"
If needed, disconnect and reconnect in order to configure.
Reconfigured to side by side displays.
Set wallpaper for second display. You move the Display settings dialogue
to the screen for which you wish to set its properties. When setting
wallpaper, you select the directory where it lives, then choose from the
images it finds in that directory.
Added direct IP address entries to /etc/hosts for aws, ag, and sc.
Updated IP address to access Ragnar via WiFi.
Booted into Windows.
To set up second display, go to Settings/Display and select "Extend
display". Until you do this, default is mirror display on both
monitors.
To set different wallpaper for each display, choose the wallpaper as
usual and then right click on the wallpaper image and select which
display should show it. If you left click, it will be shown on both.
Booted back into Linux. Came up with dual screen as set up before.
Connected the Fourmilab_Mirror drive to the USB hub. It mounted on:
/dev/sdf1 7.3T 3.0T 4.0T 43% /media/kelvin/Fourmilab_Mirror
I have not yet confirmed if we can boot with it connected or what
Windows will make of it if it's connect when we bring it up.
Created symbolic links for easy access to Fourmilab_Mirror:
super
ln -s /media/kelvin/Fourmilab_Mirror/kelvin/juno/home/kelvin /juno
ln -s /media/kelvin/Fourmilab_Mirror/kelvin/hayek/home/kelvin /hayek
As of 2023-09-26 at 00:06 UTC, Roswell is the primary development machine
at Bleakleigh.
Trying to fix stupid 12 hour U.S. time in date command.
According to:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1238397/ubuntu-server-20-04-time-format-24-hours-on-shell-with-date-command
tried:
super
localectl set-locale LC_TIME="en_GB.UTF-8"
Log out, then log back it, and it's fixed. I actually just did:
su - kelvin
to test rather than logging all the way out and back in.
1 Like
2023 September 26
To enable Compose key for special characters:
Settings/Keyboard/Layout
uncheck "Use system defaults".
Set Compose key to "Right alt".
Bob's your uncle.
Installed:
apt-get install wmctrl
This is used by ~/bin/Sb to set modes on the clock window.
After running overnight, the system locked up with a black screen and
nothing but a blinking underline cursor at the top left. Ctrl-Alt-Del
performed a normal Linux shutdown and clean reboot. During the hang
the fan was running in "Alienware space heater" mode.
Plugged in Ethernet cable. It got its address normally from DHCP and
connected just fine. SSH login to the WiFi address still works.
Having the Ethernet jack on the left side means a stiff Category 5
cable uses up a substantial amount of desk space. A more supple cable
or a right-angle plug becomes very attractive.
After the reboot, the system didn't mount the external USB drive. It
only mounted it after I unplugged the USB cable and plugged it back in.
Installed:
apt-get install xsel
This is used by "ctwit" to copy its output to the X copy/paste selection
buffer.
Changed the toolbar display format for the Clock widget to
"%a, %Y-%m-%d %H:%M", for example, "Tue, 2018-03-06 22:20".
To make window buttons on the taskbar (toolbar) at the top group by
type:
Right click on a vacant space in the top bar.
Select Panel/Panel Preferences. In that pop-up, select Items tab.
Double click "Window Buttons". In the resulting pop-up, under
"Behaviour", select Window grouping: "Always".
Wasn't that easy? See:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/652948/xfce-how-to-disable-taskbar-items-grouping
Installed:
apt-get install syncthing syncthing-gtk
Opened a browser window to:
http://127.0.0.1:8384/
In Actions/Settings, set a GUI password:
User: kelvin Password: usual password
Use HTTPS for GUI.
Killed and restarted syncthing. Logged back in with browser. Used the
user ID and password I set above.
Our device id is:
roswell
REDACTED
Here is how to control those infuriating Snap update popups:
https://snapcraft.io/docs/keeping-snaps-up-to-date
You can set when in the week it checks for updates with the:
super
snap set system refresh.timer=sun1,05:00
which will check on the first Sunday of the month at 05:00
(I believe this is local time). The time specifications
are documented at:
https://snapcraft.io/docs/timer-string-format
You can see the current settings with:
snap refresh --time
Configured Perl for installation of modules from CPAN by
logging in as "root":
su - root
perl -MCPAN -e "shell"
install Bundle::CPAN
o conf commit
We will always install Perl modules from the root account for
system-wide access.
Installed:
apt-get install perl-doc
This installs "perldoc" and the base Perl documentation.
Installed:
apt-get install figlet
This is the ASCII art label maker we use for sections in Nuweb
programs.
Installed Skype with:
snap install skype
It used to be a package in the Ubuntu repository, but is now available
only as a snap. Made a test call: it appears to work.
Installed Zoom client with:
snap install zoom-client
It appears to work, but Virtual Background doesn't seem to work without
a green screen, which if you don't have one does funny things.
Installed totem video player:
apt-get install totem
Installed audio utility:
apt-get install sox
Install audio/video million blade Swiss Army Knife.
apt-get install ffmpeg
Catastrophe! I decided to make my weekly visit to the Second Life
Server group using Phoenix Firestorm viewer on Linux. Everything was
fine in logging on and travelling to the venue with Fourmilab Rocket as
I usually do. The meeting was fine until, at 38 minutes after the hour,
one of the Linden hosts suggested the attendees teleport to an
experimental region running a new development version of the simulator
to stress test it with many simultaneous teleports in and also with a
heavy load of script execution. I went to the destination with no
trouble and, to do my part in the stress test, fired up Chaos Butterfly
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Fourmilab-Chaos-Butterfly/24053377
in worn mode with particle effect trails. About ten seconds into the
test, my machine completely locked up. The cursor disappeared within
the Firestorm window and when I moved it outside, I could see it but
was unable to click on anything. From Ragnar, I could ping the machine
and log in via SSH, but attempting to killall Firestorm accomplished
nothing.
Finally, I decided to reboot with "shutdown -r now", and Roswell
immediately dropped the SSH login and went to the Xubuntu shutdown
screen...where it remained for ten minutes. I eventually lost
patience and tried to power cycle the computer, but it would not
power down! Pressing the power button did nothing. Was AGI in the
driver's seat?
I disconnected all external cables to the machine with no change. I
disconnected the power supply and, apart from the power button changing
colour from blue to yellow, no change. Now, this machine does not have
a removable battery, so was I doomed to waiting for it to run down?
Finally, after about 20 minutes, the machine spontaneously powered down.
I reconnected everything (live dangerously!) and powered back up. It
came back up normally and apparently everything was tickety-boo. Of
course I lost all of my open windows and browser tabs which had to be
manually re-established.
I went back to Second Life with Firestorm, but I did not try the Chaos
Butterfly test this time.
What is going on? I have no idea. Perhaps the RTX 4090 graphics
processor support in Linux has "a few rough edges" which were triggered
by the particle effect trails Chaos Butterfly was emitting. I shall
have to test this on Firestorm for Windows to see what happens there,
but I will defer the experiment until a time I'm better prepared for
a total, can't power down, lockup.
At the moment, it's back up and behaving OK. We'll see....
Based on:
https://postimg.cc/image/vm7vbujv9/
I created a new "application" under Settings/Session and Startup called
"no caps" which executes:
setxkbmap -option ctrl:nocaps
which is supposed to disable the Caps Lock key. We'll see if it works at the
login, as that's the only time it's executed.
I spoke too quickly. After the reboot following the lock-up, the
external USB drive, once again, was not mounted. My guess is that when
it has shut down due to inactivity, it doesn't detect the system coming
back up and/or doesn't come back to life quickly enough for the
automounter to see and mount it. One again, unplugging and replugging
the USB cable brought it back to life.
2 Likes
Does not holding power button for 20-30 sec power down the machine?
2 Likes
Interesting that you seem to feel comfortable installing snaps. After years of promises of great permission controls, I still do not understand who the publishers of these snaps are and what permissions these snaps require.
2 Likes
Every time before now. But this time holding down the power button did absolutely nothing. I held it down for more than a minute on two occasions. Before, it only took about 5 seconds.
1 Like
All of the snaps I install are from the Snapcraft repository. I assume that for the high visibility applications like Skype and Zoom would take immediate action if somebody was posting rogue. In any case, more and more Linux applications are shipping as Snap only. I suspect the Snap feature’s allowing developers to push updates to users motivates them to use Snap.
2 Likes
The promise of snaps was wonderful – binary portability across various Linux distributions, sandboxing and fine-grained permission control. Binary portability seems to be getting there, but at an expense of compromising security. Snapstore does not seem to allow a user to review security capabilities of a snap prior to installation. As a result, majority of applications are not motivated to emphasize security and are not sandboxed at all.
Until this is resolved, running a snap-based installation in a VM with very limited time- and area- access to the host filesystem seems like the only viable solution.
1 Like
2023 September 27
Installed:
apt-get install cpuid
I needed this for my screed about Intel instruction set
incompatibilities.
The Google Chrome browser comes up with its own screwball override of
the Xfce window controls. This means you lose the ability to send the
window to another workspace or make it visible on all workspaces. To
restore this, you have to right click on the window title area and
select something like "Use system window border". I don't recall
precisely what it was since, once clicked, it was gone forever and you
cannot (or at least I cannot figure out how to) reset it to the
original (stupid) mode. Chromium, being less grabby, does not do this.
The system was well-behaved today. I used it entirely as my main
development machine for posts and maintenance on the Scanalyst site
and it worked without any problems at all. At this writing, uptime is
28 hours and I have had no need to boot into Windows.
I really love this 45.7 cm diagonal 2560x1600 165 Hz (!) display on the
desktop. It makes me yearn for more on the auxiliary screen, which is
61 cm but a mere (!) 1920x1080 60 Hz which I bought originally as the
primary screen for my Raspberry Pi 400. Everything looks so much
*larger* when you drag it to the auxiliary screen.
4 Likes
2023 September 28
The /home/kelvin/.config/GIMP file was set to root:root ownership,
presumably because the first time I used GIMP I was su to root. I
fixed it with:
super
cd ~/.config
chown -R kelvin:wheel GIMP/
This should dispense with all the scary warnings every time I run GIMP.
Installed Steam:
super
snap install steam
Immediately after being launched after installation, it updated itself
with a 36 Mb download. Isn't it great that snaps are always up to
date?
Logged in and, of course, had to go through the dance of E-mail
verification of a recognition code. Imagine how frictionless our lives
could be if we could dispense with that continent of a third of a
billion grifters and layabouts who render our whole world a low trust
society.
To test Steam installation, purchased, downloaded, and installed (on
the Linux side) "The Battle of Polytopia".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Polytopia
If it's good enough for Elon, it's good enough for me.
Installed:
apt-get install ncal
This is what they're calling the Unix "cal" program these days.
High weirdness: I had left the system idle for around two hours and
when I returned, the fan was blasting away full-tilt, but emitting air
around room temperature, not perceptibly heated. I ran "top" and it
showed the system 99% idle. There was no obvious reason for the fan to
be running, but there it was. After saving what I was doing, I
rebooted the system, noting that it had been up for 2 days and 2 hours
before the "shutdown -r now" was issued.
The shutdown appeared normal but when the Alienware start-up screen
appeared it seemed to be stuck there for around a minute (while usually
it would enter the boot loader selection in a second or two). It
then spontaneously jumped into a System Diagnostic screen where it
reported running tests on all of the system's myriad fans. All of these
tests passed, and it displayed a Continue button. I pressed it, and the
boot loader appeared, whence I booted into Xubuntu and everything
seems fine. The fan is not running now and the system is behaving.
I have no idea what this is all about, but just like when you find one
grey alien living in your basement, there's probably more you haven't
yet discovered. We'll see....
4 Likes
2023 September 29
After leaving the machine idle overnight, I found it upon waking to be
stuck in the "Alienware space heater mode" I originally encountered on
2023-09-25. Once again, the main screen was blank except for a
blinking underline cursor at the top left and the auxiliary screen was
totally blank. The fan was going full tilt and kicking out the joules.
This time I was in a better position to investigate, so I first
determined that I could ping the system from Ragnar and then log in
via SSH. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary on the remote login.
I then ran "top", which reported (elided after the top three items):
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
1100 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 100.0 0.0 396:57.24 nvidia-modeset/kthread_q
1971 root 20 0 28.4g 157396 101948 R 99.7 0.2 406:02.89 Xorg
3519 kelvin 20 0 33.2g 229564 137124 S 1.3 0.4 68:09.97 chrome
Clearly, something related to the Nvidia graphics card had locked up,
and took the X window system along with it, running up a total of six
and a half hours of CPU time (presumably on different cores/threads)
each. That explains the heat, especially if the Nvidia GPU was in on
the act.
I then tried a variety of things, both of my own devising and
recommended by Web searches.
kill 1100 # Kill nvidia-modeset
# Nothing happens
kill -9 1100 # Really kill nvidia-modeset
# Nothing happens
# https://www.shellhacks.com/restart-x-server-ubuntu-linux/
pkill X
# Nothing happens
Ctrl+Alt+F1
# Nothing happens
kill 1971
# Nothing happens
kill -9 1971
# Xorg stopped, fan stopped. Now Top shows:
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
1100 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 100.0 0.0 409:15.31 nvidia-modeset/kthread_q
1101 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 100.0 0.0 1:09.84 nvidia-modeset/deferred_close_kthr+
30208 root 20 0 9944 5376 4864 R 100.0 0.0 1:09.83 gpu-manager
1 root 20 0 168272 12288 7936 S 0.0 0.0 0:02.73 systemd
# Screen continues to show blinking cursor
xinit
waiting for X server to begin accepting connections .
..
..
startx
# Fan starts again. Top shows
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
1100 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 100.0 0.0 412:42.68 nvidia-modeset/kthread_q
30230 root 19 -1 2772 1280 1280 R 100.0 0.0 2:31.66 Xorg.wrap
1101 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 100.0 0.0 4:37.20 nvidia-modeset/deferred_close_kthr+
30208 root 20 0 9944 5376 4864 R 100.0 0.0 4:37.19 gpu-manager
29980 root 20 0 0 0 0 I 0.3 0.0 0:00.16 kworker/u64:3-events_freezable_pow+
Finally, I resort to:
shutdown -r now
# Nothing happens
Then, it's finger on the power button, and after around 30 seconds, it
powers down. I turn it back on and reboot into Xubuntu. When the
login screen appears, I try to log into my account and after entering
the password, the screen goes blank, and after around ten seconds, the
login screen appears again. I repeat this experiment sufficient times
to convince myself it isn't going to "get better" (and justify a
diagnosis of insanity), and try, as a lark, logging in with the
"installation" account I created whilst installing the system. That
works, although the auxiliary screen remains black and the cursor and
windows are confined to the main screen.
I try logging in with my main account from Ragnar via SSH, and at the
end of the login messages I espy with my little eye:
/usr/bin/xauth: /home/kelvin/.Xauthority not writable, changes will be ignored
X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication.
Ahhhh, the good old .Xauthority file getting into the act again. It
turns out to have its ownership set to root:root, explaining the
message and perhaps the inability to log in from the window system
console. As super-user, I deleted the .Xauthority file. Then, when I
tried SSH logins from Ragnar, I got:
xauth: timeout in locking authority file /home/kelvin/.Xauthority
I then discovered there were files named:
-rw------- 2 kelvin wheel 0 Sep 29 13:47 .Xauthority-c
-rw------- 2 kelvin wheel 0 Sep 29 13:47 .Xauthority-l
which have the distinct odour of lock files, so I deleted both of them.
I then tried an:
xauth generate :0
but it wouldn't let me do that, presumably because I was not logged in
from the X windows display ":0".
Then I tried logging out from "installation" and logging in with my
account on Roswell's main screen, and this time it let me log in.
In the process, it created a new ~/.Xauthority file owned by me.
Now, could log in from Ragnar via SSH with no errors or warnings
and run programs that open windows via X forwarding.
So far, so (not so) good, but the auxiliary screen remained stygian.
I tried unplugging the HDMI connector and plugging it back in, and
every time I changed the state of the connector, the Display settings
panel popped up, but even when plugged in, it showed only the Laptop
screen, not the auxiliary screen. On a guess, I tried connecting the
screen via the DisplayPort jack via a DisplayPort to HDMI adaptor
dongle, and it behaved exactly the same.
Looking at the "dmesg" output when I plugged in the display revealed
some bullshit about:
module verification failed signature and/or required key missing
which smelled like Microsoft's monopoly enforcement gang up to their
old tricks.
At this point, I tried booting into Windows 11 and, sure enough, the
auxiliary screen worked just fine, both on the DisplayPort and direct
HDMI connections. I left it back on the HDMI port.
Booting back into Xubuntu it didn't, of course, work, but I was able
to confirm that the "failed signature" messages occurred on a clean
boot with the display attached.
Further research revealed a report:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1230924/ubuntu-20-04-does-not-recognize-second-monitor
that turning off the "Secure boot" option in the BIOS configuration
would fix this problem. I restarted the system, disabled secure boot,
and CAZART!, the second screen came to life and there were no wacko
failed signature messages in dmesg.
Now, why this driver and auxiliary screen, which has been working in
the Xubuntu installation since 2023-09-25, should suddenly start to
fail with a driver signature problem when I have installed precisely
zero updates to the Linux system since then is a total mystery.
Perhaps it's checking the driver signature against some external
signature repository which has gone silent or is now sending bogus
signatures or rejecting valid drivers--I have no idea. But for the
foreseeable future, "Secure boot" is going to remain disabled. This
was enough crap for me, no thank you very much, Microsoft.
While I was at it, and with all the reboots and stuff required to
re-establish all of my open windows and tabs, I took the opportunity
to apply all pending updates to Windows 11 and Xubuntu. None appeared
relevant to the Nvidia driver problems chronicled here.
Thus were forfeit, forever, five hours in which I had hoped to perform
some useful work.
Plugged the external USB drive into one of the USB connectors on the
left side of the laptop. Perhaps it will run faster there than on
the hub, which I suspect is limited to USB 2.0.
Added the ability to back up Roswell to the Fourmilab_Mirror external
USB drive. I added a "roswell" directory to my home directory on that
drive, created three subdirectories (owned by root:root) for the
backup mirrors:
boot
root
win
and placed a shell script, Mirror_roswell, adapted from the
hayek/Mirror_hayek script to perform the backup. The script backs up
the root directory (ignoring any mounts of other file systems within
it), the /boot directory (including the /boot/efi VFAT file system,
which is a separate mount), and the C:\ drive of the Windows 11
SSD, which we mount as /win, as described on 2023-09-24. Note that
since this is an NTFS file system, the files within it contain
attributes and metadata which are not backed up by our Linux rsync
procedure, but all of the data are there to be restored. We do not
back up the arcane Windows boot partition and other Microsoft demonic
ephemera, as trying to restore them from Linux would be a futile
endeavour. (We'll rely on the Clonezilla backups [see 2023-09-23]
should we need to restore them.)
The external USB mirror backup drive does, indeed, appear to run much
faster connected directly to a USB 3.0 port on the laptop than to the
USB hub.
The space occupied by the mirror of Roswell is:
226M boot
4.0K Mirror_roswell
37G root
57G win
Note that we can dramatically reduce the size of the "win" mirror by
excluding the following ephemeral files:
hiberfil.sys Hibernation dump file
pagefile.sys Paging file
swapfile.sys Swap file
I have not yet added this refinement.
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